Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund
(asked on 24th June 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policy to reallocate the unspent funding allocated to the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund to (a) small breweries and (b) other businesses that support the hospitality sector.
The Government has put forward a package of support for business in recognition of the disruption caused by Covid-19. As part of this, as of 21 June, £10.48 billion has been paid out to over 853,800 business properties under the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF). We are working closely with all local authorities to deliver remaining funding to eligible businesses. Due to reasons of fairness, those local authorities with unspent funding will not be able to reallocate this beyond these schemes, and all local authorities will need to carry out a reconciliation exercise with government in due course.
On 1 May, the Government announced a further up to £617 million available for local authorities in England to support small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs that are not liable for business rates or rates reliefs, and are therefore out of scope of the SBGF and RHLGF. Local authorities are responsible for defining precise eligibility for this scheme in their area, within the government guidance:
We are keeping in close contact with local authorities to understand how the schemes are rolling out and any additional support which could be offered to help businesses and support local economies.